Try Not to Breathe—Second Annual Canadian Wildfire Smoke Out

Several nations' citizens will smoke a couple packs of Canada without leaving home--file this under "Climate Change Is a Myth"

May 14, 2024

a huge fire burning behind a populated city. wildfires, climate change — Created by Dan Pelland prompt in MidJourney

Right on time, it's year #2 of humans in the US, all over Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and much of Europe sucking in huge amounts of particulate matter with every breath we take. It stinks. It causes lung issues, it hurts babies, children and old people. It's unavoidable. And no one is doing anything real about it.

Last year, I narrowly escaped a flaming social media debate about how wildfires are, are not, the product of climate change. This year, I am smarter. I don't do social.
But all that started me thinking that my primary concern is how long will we have air to breathe? You can argue climate change, but you sure can’t walk outside these days and argue air quality in most of the US and beyond.
Having idle time, I did some reading and talked to a local weather guy, so you don’t have to. We’ll all likely have air to breathe for a while, but it’s getting risky.
My husband says we had way browner air back in the 1960s when everyone burned leaded fuel and coal, but that’s water under the bridge. Speaking of which, we’re in dire straights with fresh water, too.
Back to the story.

woman sitting by a window with a cloud of smoke in her face. Wildfires — Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

Not only does it stink, this particulate pollution can make you sick or kill you (not hyperbole)

There’s air pollution, and there’s particulate air pollution. The latter is a suspension of tiny chunks of ash, charcoal, dust, lava, or whatever is at hand. Those chunks get inside your body, particularly but not limited to your heart, lungs, sinuses, throat, and stomach. They’re small, yes—2.5 micrometers. A quarter the size of a human hair.
Particles from smoke…are small enough to get deep into the lungs and the tiniest, ultrafine particles can pass directly into the bloodstream. —ca.gov
As we watch our skies darken and experience the wafts of putrid smoke, the CDC advises you to stay indoors with an HVAC system running. Add a couple of air filters, and you should be good to go for now. You can even safely run on a treadmill.
But outside, at the beach, the park, at work, walking, or even singing at a concert, it’s somewhat riskier. You probably won’t die.
But I love that a news analyst on ABC reported there will likely be more heart attacks, asthma, allergy attacks, and respiratory arrests. Yeah, I know — that’s just for at-risk people. The old, the infants, kids, sick people, people who work hard outside—wait, that’s a lot of people.
Bees and pollinators are not thrilled either. God knows if the cicadas will live through it all. Larger animals are coughing, too, though so far, our hummingbirds aren’t donning masks. Your dogs, cats, and goldfish are not immune.
So think about this. Wildfire events aside, particulate pollution affects a lot of people (82% of the global population, or 6.2 billion people) due to everyone breathing the air. Unless you can suggest an alternative to breathing.
The fact is, we have no choice but to breathe everyday polluted air, and if you dump in smoke from wildfires, the pollution is mightier. Of course, you’re right, we face other risks like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, pandemics, (assuming that’s not fake news) or war that may be riskier, but far fewer people are involved. This smoke thing is about everyone who breathes. And even without the wildfires, our warming planet is experiencing way more allergens than ever before.

All I need is the air that I breathe…

Yeah, but it’s temporary—or is it?

Canada’s annual wildfire season typically goes from May to October (whaddya know, it's right on time!). Lot’s of fires. Right now, at least 90 active wildfires are burning in Canada. Canada's National Preparedness Level is at 2 out of 5, which means that wildland fire activity is increasing and expanding to more juridictions.
The images that we have seen so far this season are some of the most severe we have ever witnessed in Canada, and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity,” Canada’s emergency-preparedness minister Bill Blair told the Associated Press last year.
In 2023, some 6,551 fires scorched nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. It never really ended, the fires went underground and burned all winter. California fires were impressive, too. So 2024 could really be alarming.

Potential societal and political impacts

The potential results are not all negative. The smoke event may influence people’s thinking on climate change and motivate actions like contacting political representatives or joining environmental organizations.
Discussion may crop up on social media, including debates on smoke, pollution, climate change, and potential blame on political parties. (Yeah, we need more of that).
Some individuals are staying indoors more, while others defy restrictions by going to the beach to prove they cannot be controlled or managed.
It's not clear whether citizens or officials will be moved to demand or take long-term action. The smoke event will affect different people differently and has not yet fully played itself out. For some people, it will push forward their thinking on climate change. That might help.
More people will run their A/C, which makes the utility companies happy. Of course, using more energy has its own problems.
It has to be noted that we experience smoke pollution when California burns, too. Canada will spew smoke until the fall. California should start up again soon. Then something else will be on fire for sure, and soon spring will roll around with California erupting again.
The cycle will not likely diminish as years go by. We waited too long to take climate change, the importance of good water, and air pollution seriously. We failed to act soon enough or strongly enough.
I’m predicting that humans will begin to grow gills that can take in poisoned air and extract oxygen. I tried to get AI to generate an image like that, but the bot was confused.
Living in domes like in the classic sci-fi story Logans Run might be interesting. Personally, I won’t like filtering urine to get drinking water. I prefer blue skies to orange. Write it down, folks; the window of opportunity to fix all this is inexorably closing. At some point, the only option will be to adapt.

The short list of what we’ll have to get used to

Coughing
Trouble breathing normally
Stinging eyes
Scratchy throat
Runny nose
Irritated sinuses
Wheezing and shortness of breath
Chest pain
Headaches
An asthma attack
Tiredness
Fast heartbeat

The US Department of the Interior has some great suggestions for preventing wildfires. They’re pretty serious about rethinking illegal fireworks, bonfires, and campfires.

We know lightning can spark large wildfires, but there’s also a huge careless human component to this mess. Maybe we should all take a beat to build caution into how we approach air, fire, and water.

We're beginning to see some thought-pieces on how Canada (and the US) can find solutions. Only time will tell if sanity prevails.

I’d hate to see my grandkids’ kids sprout gills, so I’m going to hold the current generation of college kids and upcoming politicians accountable for making environmental safety the top priority. Wonder how far that will get us.